TV Club is on the brink of an epic but the Doctor, Steven and Vicki are nowhere to be seen. Instead we find three stranded spacemen and a group of alien delegates involved in machinations with the Daleks.
Although missing from the archives, this episode was recreated, using 60s production methods, by university students and is available for free to watch on Youtube:
The audio soundtrack of the original episode is also available for purchase as part of The Daleks’ Master Plan:
Rate and review this episode and the UCLAN remake below:
I’m very fond of this episode. It’s so different to have a story without the regulars, and it’s a lovely hint of the epic to come. Sure, it’s not the most sophisticated storyline but the Daleks are fantastic in it, restoring their reputation after The Chase.
We get our first glimpse of the alien delegates and they are wonderfully alien (there is, for me, a direct line between this and The End of the World). We also get the Varga plants which are a brilliantly chilling Doctor Who creation. Is it just me who would like to see a modern return of the Varga plants? We never see anything of Skaro’s biotic community any more (and haven’t for a very long time). There’s such potential there.
I rather enjoy this episode. The remake is my preferred version, but the audio/recon version does work quite well as it is dialogue heavy.
In the remake the performances are solid. You can tell they got the ‘feel’ of what the episode was supposed to be.
As for the story, I like that it is an oddity in Doctor Who. It is an interesting way to give an info dump for The Daleks’ Master Plan, but also have a neat 20-minute story.
I’ve only actually seen the remake, but it was well done. It’s rather hard for me to judge, though, since I haven’t actually watched The Daleks’ Master Plan.
The UCLAN remake is an astonishing piece of work - the guy playing Malpha is clearly loving life .
I agree with @realdoctor about the Varga’s - a truly terrifying creation because it’s something which just consumes people and one tiny prick (quiet at the back) is a death sentence. It doesn’t seem like there would be any way of stopping it. They do appear in a few audios like Masters of Earth but I can’t say I remember much about their use.
I’m no fan of Master Plan but this is a pretty good prologue and an interesting experiment in a show which, even in those early days, never sat on its laurels and was always trying out different things.
I would love to know how viewers reacted to the obvious lack of Dalek action the following week.
It does well with setting up some atmosphere for The Daleks’ Master Plan.
The reconstruction made was so well done, it is my go to version of this story.
I like it
Wasn’t this one the last with Verity Lambert as producer?
And how did William Hartnell ('s manager) manage to get him top billing in an episode he isn’t in?
Oh I think this is a great episode of Doctor Who. Tense, exciting, and back at the time the Daleks were reasonably consistently good (Chase the only exception). It leaves you wanting to find out how the story continues, which of course it does. My preferred way of watching it is actually the Levine animation (which I did not pay to acquire). The remake, I really appreciate the set design and the direction, it really felt like 60s Who in that regard and really well done, but with the exception of Cory and Briggs’s Daleks I found the performances to be either flat (guy with Cory) or way over the top (the one delegate who speaks). They were students of course, but I find that comes across in their performances in a way that takes a little away from the story for me. Overall, the episode is definitely proof that you can do Doctor Who without the Doctor and companions and still be good. 8/10
I really dig this concept. It’s a very simple yet effective Episode and an Oddity in its own right (even without the recreation, which was done marvelously, really hope this plus a recon of the original Audio gets a place in the Season 3 Boxset eventually). I really love all those different Aliens. That one council is just a splendid idea, and I love how bleak this Story ends. The Varga plants are amazing, shame they didn’t play much of a role in later Stories.
I think this one is also very wise to have just a standalone Episode, one more, and it could really feel a bit padded.
A nice little prequel to DMP for sure!
Yes, it’s tremendous fun. I hadn’t been able to see the recon of the original by then (I had just heard the audio). I was delighted.
Since then, I managed to get a copy of the recon. Didn’t expect much if I’m honest, but I really loved it. It may have been Verity’s last but if was a good one to bow out on.
As you say, @deltaandthebannermen, they crop up occasionally in audio and in comics, but they’re so visual and today’s production standards could make them so much more convincing. Terrifying killer cacti that make Meglos look tame by comparison.
To be fair, I’ve always been drawn to the weird biological community of Skaro; from the Magnedon, to the Slyther and the wonderfully chilling Vargas. We need to see these creatures again, either on Skaro (beyond the confines of the Dalek city) or on a world conquered by the Daleks where they are used as guard dogs etc.
I had listened to the audio version a while ago, so I watched the restage for a different experience. I thought they did a good job capturing the visuals, but something about the dialogue seemed to be different. I wonder how much British diction has changed in the past 50 years? The story is fine, I guess, but it is ultimately just a long teaser for the later Masterplan, which hampers its power somewhat.
Also, would it be possible for the UCLAN remount to be listed as a rateable variation? It seems like that would make sense.
I have some catching up to do with my reviews and forum posts!
MISSION TO THE UNKNOWN, or HOW I STOPPED WORRYING ABOUT TERRY NATION AND LEARNED TO LOVE THE DALEK!
Interesting singular episode - no Doc, no TARDIS, no companions. Just a trio of stranded spacemen, a bunch of killer plants and a group och alien delegates plotting to take over the galaxy! This is one of the better things written by Nation and a good taster of what’s to come in the Master Plan epic. But it’s also a very skippable episode because everything established in it will be explained again during Master Plan.
I had a fun time watching the Loose Cannon reconstruction, the Ian Levine animation and the brilliant UCLAN remake for this one. The LC reconstruction isn’t very good, to be honest, and the animation is fine, but my go-to version is the 2019 remake, made by university students and staff with such a keen eye for detail that it looks and feels as if it was made in the 60s!
I do like when Doctor Who does things that stray from the usual formula. Having an episode all without the doctor and companions lets us instead get to know the people that make up the world. Of course, they do have a tragic and violent fate, which is an interesting change. The UCLAN remake is truly amazing
Hey, just bumping this because now that we have Variations I have split off the webcast version of this into its own story:
This means you can rate/review this separately, if you’ve seen both, and also you can keep track of which one you’ve actually seen, and go back to the other one day if you’ve only seen one.
Please adjust your ratings according to which version you watched
.
5/10